Before I explain the question, I must first explain myself. You might otherwise be tempted to dismiss what I write here as rant. It is a little more than that.
If you read about me, you will see that I am a barrister, a member of the UK’s legal profession, but only on the basis that “once a barrister always a barrister. ” I have to confess to you that it is many years since I represented anyone, and I never represented all that many people anyway. I moved on. No-one can accuse me of being a termite. You will have to read some of my earlier Posts to see what I mean by that.
The Bar, however, has a tradition, and with all these Posts and with this one in particular, I adopt it. That tradition is to pass on to the younger generation the tricks of the trade, sorry, some accumulated wisdom and skills.
The Author’s Note
On the Northern Circuit I was privileged to have as Head of Chambers, and as my pupil master, the late C.N.Glidewell, CNG to everyone who knew him. He was a man with old fashioned integrity. He was also a master of advocacy – particularly good when he showed up the ineptitude of local planners. He also had style. All of this was somehow encapsulated in his choice of car – a Bristol – a prestigious saloon engineered with traditional British quality in its design. In all ways CNG was a cut above the ordinary.
Maybe that is where I first experienced the need for boxing gloves when dealing with bureaucrats. Mind you I am afraid that some lawyers, not all, only engage in shadow boxing, so you have to be careful in your choice. I am sorry if that offends, but it must be said.
Let me press on. Today I am not wearing a fusty old, out dated, legal wig. They don’t need them in the States. They should discard them in the UK other than on ceremonial occasions, and probably not even then. They are pretty on female heads, but socially very divisive. Sorry, that is a bit of rant.
Today, I write wearing the suit and tie of a retired company chairman and managing director, with a Rotary badge in my lapel.
I return to my question. Are you a lion or a gazelle? Death of a Nightingale explains that this question comes straight out of Africa. The answer has, however, to be provided here.
Act One Scene 3
Margaret Williamson, the head teacher, Emma Kirk, the music teacher, Joan Errington the English teacher, and Wendy Robinson, a non-teaching care assistant, talk in the staff room about staff training. They somehow find the time.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Okay. Can we focus on motivation? We know kids have a lotof anger, a lot of aggression. And not just kids. What do we do with it? Do we harness it, or do we suppress it? Would that be a good topic?
EMMA KIRK Yes, it would. Can I give you a story to tell them? It will make a good starting point. It comes from a book I’ve been reading. The story comes out of Africa. “Every morning a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start runnin’.”
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I’m afraid Emma, that begs the question – just where do you run to?
EMMA KIRK If you want to talk about motivation, Margaret, talk sport. Most folk will follow that. So where does Tiger Woods run? To the winning post. That man knows what it is to aspire – it’s not about dosh – no way, and not just to be the best golfer on the day. Tiger wants to be the best golfer ever – and a black. Wow. That’s where that man channels all his energy, and he has no fear of failure. He’s practised the word ‘failure’ right out of his vocabulary. If you’re afraid of failure you’ll win nuttin’. The dustbins are full of the hopes of those who in their bellies were dead scared of failing. They couldn’t zap their fears. Sisters, I tell you, if you cannot zap those gremlins right out of your system, you’ll win nuttin’ in life.
JOAN ERRINGTON Yes, you’re right about using sport. I heard Navratilova explain why so many good tennis players come out of Eastern Europe. And we produce scarcely any. They have belief and determination, and they don’t quit. That’s where you run.
EMMA KIRK I know another part of the trouble. It’s them folk that prattle on about the evils of capitalism and competition. Oh yes it is. That’s why we don’t win things. Why we have so few sporting heroes of our own. If we want to enjoy them, we have to import them. Then call the football team Chelsea. Them folk, the poor little lambs that have lost their way, baa baa baa. They don’t like competition. Poor little things. Tell that to the Chinese. Today their students are keeping our universities going. Why? To compete. Competition’s a part of life. Wanting to be somebody is part of real living. Earning and spending our dosh makes the world go round, now don’t it? Sure these things are not the be all and the end all, but those folk who moan on about these things are just running scared of life They expect the State to tie their bootlaces for them. That’s no good way to be. Now is it?
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I don’t entirely agree. Some people like life without the spills and they don’t mind missing out on the thrills. They don’t think life should be about winners and losers.
EMMA KIRK Okay, but don’t wish it on other folk. That is one of the things that life is about. If they don’t believe it is, and they’re teachers, they’re preparing kids for a world that don’t exist. You need a horizon. The sting of failure is a spur to glory. Sure you feel the sting, but you’re not running scared of it. If you don’t like the sting at all, well don’t look for the glory. Hey, that’s one reason why we celebrate so many victories in this school, isn’t it so? We compete. Our Para Olympian medallists for a start. Our Band….
JOAN ERRINGTON You’re right There’s real triumph when it comes out of adversity, especially if you have to suffer a little first It sets kids up for life. Mollycoddle them, wrap them up in cotton wool, and everyone else will run off with the medals. I think it was Helen Keller who said “Security is an illusion. Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all.” She rose to a challenge didn’t she? Blind and deaf from early childhood.
EMMA KIRK Nannies should stay in the nursery, if you ask me. It ain’t no good pretending that life’s easy. The easy option is usually a dead end. For our kids it is.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Well there are certainly no cheers for mediocrity. Great Britain wasn’t great just because of her Empire and the Maxim gun. Can I sum this up? Unless you find a mountain to climb, you’ll never ever find out what you’re really capable of. You’ll miss out on an awful lot For our kids those mountains are just a little bit higher, and we have to keep reminding them about the view from the top.
JOAN ERRINGTON Before we finish, Margaret, there’s one other thing we should talk about. It you’re thinking about motivation, you should also think about things that demotivate. You know the worst thing? And at Brighouse we can see this more clearly than most. It’s envy. Envy gets you nowhere, nowhere at all. Margaret, when you opened this discussion you mentioned anger and aggression. Envy sometimes turns that right in on itself. Think of Iago in Othello. The Bard saw it all.
EMMA KIRK The Bible got there long before that. The Tenth Commandment. Thou shalt not covet. No sin in owning Just sin in coveting.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON No sin in owning? How do you get your camel through the eye of a needle, Emma?
EMMA KIRK Those gates of Heaven are still a titchy bit open for those rolling in it. It’s not owning riches that’s the problem. It’s what you do with them. Money makes the world go round. I’ll tell you something. I know the Bible says you can’t serve God and Mammon. It doesn’t say it’s a sin to go shopping with it. Anyway, that’s not the point I’m making. You’ve got to admire what folk make of their lives when they make a success of it.
JOAN ERRINGTON Well our kids go along with that. It’s so much healthier to rejoice in someone else’s achievement than to envy it. And they do, they really do. And we have to encourage it all the time.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Yes we do. It’s liberating for all of us. It’s our gift to the world to help people to see that. There is far too much envy about these days – and it’s usually the same lost sheep you were talking about. You’d think it was a crime to want to win something. And you’d think it was a sin to want to own a yacht. The great thing these days is that lots of people do, and not just millionaires. It what gets them going. Fly a plane, cure a sick animal, drive a McLaren, just have a dream. That’s why you’ll want to learn. The tragedy today is that not enough kids have a dream
WENDY ROBINSON A lot of our kids do. The young ones get them from the older ones. Good on them all. Any road, I got my dream. We love our van. We have smashing times.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Exactly. Meanwhile our great government can’t make up its mind whether we are a part of one large sausage machine, or a lot of small sausage machines.
If the kids in El Sistema from the back streets of Venezuela can have a dream – scroll back to Post 17 – there is no good reason why kids here shouldn’t be encouraged to have one.
In that Post I said that I would talk here about the pursuit of excellence. Now, I add just this. There are degrees of excellence, and there are variations in mediocrity. There is no equality here. There can, if you think about it, be fairness.
This is my contribution to the rising generation, in the best tradition of the English Bar.
And the question – are you a lion or a gazelle? In this fast changing world, there isn’t any other realistic choice, is there? In the words of Emma Kirk, “You’d better start runnin’.”
____________________________________________________
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the death of my mother, Esther. I dedicated Death of a Nightingale to her memory. I think of her as I write this particular Post. She would have endorsed every word of it.
When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place,
let your spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.
Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear.
For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the
wine is remembered
When the colour is forgotten and the vessel is no more.
The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran
da best. Keep it going! Thank you